月亮里有兔、蟾蜍、桂而太阳里有乌的神话起源

The Origins of the Myths of the Rabbit,the Toad,and the Osmanthus Tree on the Moon and the Crow on the Sun

从日月神祇名称与汉语第一人称代词的对应来建立一个日月神祇名称系统,可通过这个系统来推导兔、蟾蜍、桂、乌与日、月的语音关系:古人把太阳与月亮都视为天的眼睛,都称为眼,后来"眼"的原始音再分化出"日""月"来。在"日""月"漫长的语音演化过程中,"月"与"兔""蟾蜍""桂"同音,而"日"与"乌"同音,语音的雷同为神话的产生提供了基础,再综合其他外部因素,便产生了月亮里有兔、蟾蜍、桂而太阳里有乌的神话来。"眼"的原始音演变分化出的不同的音正好与第一人称代词的音相同,构成一个小系统。

This paper maintains the idea that a system of the names of the gods of the sun and the moon couldbe built via the corresponsive relations between the names of the gods of the sun and the moon and the first-personpronouns in Chinese,and this system will help to deduce the phonetic connections between the Moon Rabbit,the MoonToad,the Osmanthus tree on the moon,the crow on the sun,and the sun and the moon.The ancient Chinese peopleconsidered the sun and the moon as the eyes of the sky.The ancient pronunciation of the"eye"later developed anddivided into the pronunciations of the"sun"and the"moon".During the long evolution of the pronunciations of the"sun"and the"moon",the pronunciation of the"moon"once was the same with that of the"rabbit",the"toad"and the"Osmanthus",while the pronunciation of the"sun"was once the same with that of the"crow".This is howthe myths came that the rabbit,the toad,and the Osmanthus tree lived on the moon and the crow lived on the sun.the variations of the original pronunciation of the"eye"in ancient Chinese perfectly match the pronunciations of thefirst-person pronouns in Chinese,and thus their relations constitute a system of their own.